


A Very Merry Candlenights

by mechadogmarron



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Candlenights, F/F, Fluff, Gift Giving, Team as Family, Yule, everyone loves Aubrey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-15 02:30:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16924857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mechadogmarron/pseuds/mechadogmarron
Summary: The Sylvan holiday of Candlenights has fallen upon the Amnesty Lodge. It's a season of feasting, giving, and celebrating time with the people you love.There's just one problem - Aubrey has no clue what to get Dani.





	A Very Merry Candlenights

“So, what do Sylvans do for Christmas? Or Yule, or whatever you celebrate?” Aubrey asked.

“Well, Aubrey, the Sylvans celebrate Candlenights. Now, here at the lodge, we try to have a little something for everyone — it’s in the spirit of Candlenights anyways, and we have human guests every now and then — but I’m sure most of the Sylvans will still be celebrating as traditionally as they can.”

“Oh, sick! When is it? How can I participate? Or, uh, would it be appropriate for me to be part of it? I love all my friends at the Lodge, but I understand that the Sylvans might not want a human around for their celebration, and I wouldn’t want to intrude!”

“Well, that’s mighty considerate of you to think about, Aubrey, but don’t worry — Candlenights is a pan-religious holiday, and it just wouldn’t feel right without you. I’m sure Dani would say the same.” Mama winked. “It’s a couple weeks long, and we’ll have our first holiday feast Saturday, but the gift exchange is pretty late in the celebration. It’s the 28th this year, but I’m sure they’d appreciate things just as much if you wanted to give them on Yule!”

“No, no, the 28th is great!” More time to come up with the perfect gift. “Are there any traditions? You know, always giving this or that kind of thing, or a white elephant exchange, or…?”

“Nope. The only thing that matters is that the gift is from the heart, at least a little bit. You don’t need to give anything fancy or spend a lot of money.”

“Alright. Well, I guess I just have one more question, Mama.”

“What’s that, Aubrey?

“What do you think Dani would like?”

Mama laughed and ruffled her hair. “Aubrey, Dani loves your company so much I think she’d be delighted with an eight-pack of toilet paper. You don’t need to worry. Just listen to your heart!”

So much for that. She’d been listening to her heart for days now. Some hot takes it had offered her: Dani would _hate_ this pretty set of agate coasters from the rock shop, so don’t even bother. Dani would _despise_ a nice new sketchpad, because Aubrey couldn’t possibly buy her the right brand. Dani wouldn’t like this, Dani wouldn’t like that, Dani _might_ like that but why risk it?

Which was why she now found herself sitting down for a bowl of French onion soup with Duck.

“Aubrey, you’re worrying too much.”

“Look. I have to have the _perfect_ gift for Dani. I want to show how much I care!”

Duck sighed. “Look, Aubrey, you’re really young. And that’s cool. I wish I had as much youthful exuberance as you! But when you get to be my age, what you really want for Christmas is, at its _very_ most exciting, a gift card to some ritzy kitchen store. I don’t know what you hip youth are into.”

“A kitchen store? That might — no, Barclay does all the cooking. We help out. Maybe I’ll get him a new frying pan.”

“I was just going to buy him really big socks.” Duck shrugged.

“Oh, don’t do that, he hates wearing them indoors, even though the floors in Amnesty gets so cold sometimes. I should really — oh, you were joking, weren’t you?”

He laughed. “You’re a good kid, Aubrey. You celebrate Yule, right? I was talking with Ned, and I figured, well, he’s got better stuff to do than eat Gruel Pockets, and my sister isn’t going to be around, so maybe we could all meet up at the lodge, eat leftovers from the Candlenights feast.”

“Oh, good thought. I have to ask him if he has any good ideas!”

Ned, as it turned out, did not have any good ideas. He did, however, have plenty of ideas in general.

She’d brought her knitting — a pair of socks, which was taking way too long, because she constantly messed up her row counts astronomically badly — and asked him out of what had initially been hope and had quickly turned into morbid curiosity.

“Now, a Snuggie, that’s a good gift,” he rambled. “You might not get it now, but let me tell you, when you’re relaxing on the couch with your Gruel Pockets watching reruns of That 70s Show, you’ll want one. Protection from gruel drips _and_ arm mobility. Oh, and don’t forget a Crank-a-Chop. Saves me a lot of time. Mine cracked a while back, but I fixed it up with some Flex Tape and it’s good as new.”

“You watch a lot of daytime television, huh?” Aubrey shook her head.

“How did you know?” He took a bite of the leftover stuffing. “Barclay sure can cook. That reminds me, Duck, didn’t you have something?” He winked.

“Huh? Oh, oh, yeah.” He gave a sheepish look before pulling out a badly-wrapped box. She recognized the Paw Patrol wrapping paper from the clearance bin at the Walmart two towns over. “Ned and I have been talking, and, well, we thought you deserved something nice for Yule.”

“R-really?” Aubrey beamed. “Hang on, hang on! I got you two something too. I was going to give them to you on Christmas, but let me run back to my room for a second!”

Where was it, where was it? There they were — two brown paper packages. Eco-friendly _and_ viable on her incredibly paltry income! She ran back, presenting them. “For you!”

She watched with bated breath as they unwrapped their gifts — two pairs of _very_ nice, warm, comfortable homemade socks. “I didn’t know exactly what you’d like, so I made you these! They’ll help keep your feet warm during the winter months! Ned, I know that the Cryptonomica is not, uh, the warmest at night, and Duck, I know you’re out in the woods a lot, so I figured I’d save y’all the trouble of freezing your feet off!”

“Aww, Aubrey, I love it!” Duck grinned. “You’re really good at knitting, aren’t you?”

She shook her head. “Nah, I just have a lot of time. And I’ve been learning to use magic to help me keep my stitch counts even! Gotta practice somehow, right?”

“I love it!” Ned said. “Oh, but please, open yours!”

She carefully removed the Paw Patrol wrapping paper, setting it aside to recycle. Inside was a small box full of dozens of patches, pins, buttons, and the like. She almost gasped as she looked through them. “Where did you get these?”

“I’ve got boxes of ‘em. Believe it or not, I wasn’t always such a hardass.” Duck laughed. “Juno loved this kind of stuff. We went to all the shows back then. Thought I’d pass on the mantle. Don’t know about Ned, though.”

“Oh, you know how I am. I’m a collector, I collect things! You never know what I’ve got up my sleeve. But I’ve been trying to clear out more room, you know, new things.”

“Well, thank you, both of you. From the bottom of my heart.” She picked up a couple to pin onto her jean jacket. “Looking good!”

They were definitely wonderful gifts. She loved them to death. But they still didn’t fix her problem — _what would she buy Dani_?

Maybe it took a Sylvan to pick a gift for a Sylvan.

That night, she stole away to the kitchens. As always, Barclay was there, working on soup he’d serve up with tomorrow morning’s breakfast. “Can I help up?”

“Sure, chop these onions.” He handed her one of the big kitchen knives and she set about the task. “So what’s up?”

“Well, I’m worried about getting the right Candlenights gift for Dani. Uh, not that I don’t have anything for you, it’s just that—”

“I get it, I get it! I remember being young, you know. I’m sure you talked to Mama, and I’m sure she told you the truth of the matter, which is that any gift will be fine. But I know you’re pretty stressed about this. Why not buy her something that reminds her of the time you spend together?”

“Something that reminds me of the time that we spend together?”

He nodded. “You’ll figure it out.”

She’d figure it out, huh?

Wait. She saw it in her mind’s eye, the perfect gift. It was so obvious in retrospect!

“Thanks, Barclay!”

The store was already closed, and wouldn’t reopen until Wednesday, but that was fine. She could wait. She could _totally_ wait. It was all going to be wonderful.

The week passed quickly, full of planning, prepping, wrapping for almost everyone in the Lodge. Mama had been kind enough to give her an advance on her allowance — she still didn’t know where the money came from, but all the Lodge members got one, and she was 70% sure it wasn’t stolen — and so she’d been able to prep something nice for pretty much everyone. Lots of warm socks, perfect for those cold Lodge floors and winter months; lots of nice little chocolates. A scarf for Mama. A nice new knife for Barclay to replace the obviously-going-dull one she’d chopped the onions with. And, of course, a carefully wrapped gift for Dani.

One by one, she passed them out. One by one. “Have you seen Dani?” she asked Mama.

“Oh, I just passed her in the hall. She’s probably still around there.”

She hustled over, holding the gift close. There she was, looking through the Candlenights decorations. Every day, Barclay swapped out one of them, and the name of the game was to find which one had changed. No one had spotted the one for today yet. “Dani!”

“Oh, Aubrey!” She brightened. “It’s good to see you! Merry Candlenights!”

Aubrey grinned, pushing the package towards her. “I got something for you!”

“Oh, thank you! My gift for you is under the Candlenights tree — do you want to go grab it?”

“Oh, no, you should open yours right away! There’s plenty of time! I don’t need anything anyways!”

“Well, I already got it for you, so you’re getting it either way.” She stuck her tongue out in a playful gesture as she started to unwrap the parcel. When she saw what was inside, she gasped in delight.

A shiny new trowel. A nice set of garden gloves, the goofy-looking clawed ones they always laughed about when they came on the TV. A Seed Savers gift certificate. And, of course, a lovely handmade scarf.

“I always love gardening with you so much, I thought, well, maybe we could garden a little more next year. Try out some new vegetables!”

“Aubrey…” She smiled. “I love gardening with you, too. I can’t wait! Oh, we should see if we could grow some ground cherries. And—”

“Look up!” someone shouted from down the hall — Ella, Aubrey thought. She glanced upwards. There it was, the one change of Candlenights decoration for the day. Mistletoe.

She smiled as Dani leaned forward to kiss her, a quick peck — before Aubrey wrapped her arms around the Sylvan to go for a proper, if still pretty tame, smooch. When they pulled apart, Dani was blushing. “You know, Aubrey, I’ve been thinking. There’s a new restaurant opening up in town, you know, kind of a touristy place, but it looks pretty good. Do you want to check it out, say, tomorrow night?”

“Sure thing. It’s a date.”

 _This_ , she thought, _was the best Candlenights-Yule-Christmas gift of them all_.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my TAZ gift exchange entry for tippanyakii! 
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> (Also, if you love gardening, please do check out Seed Savers! They have a lot of really cool heirloom options.)


End file.
